There’s so much to do and see on the coast, from fishing, clamming, exploring tide pools, hiking, playing on the beach, flying kites, whale watching, to building sand castles. And of course: eating fresh seafood? I just made a quick trip to Coos Bay for a day of catching my own fresh seafood.

This is looking at the Oregon Coast from two miles out. I’m not sharing it because the picture turned out that great, but because the water is so calm! I couldn’t believe how lucky we got. There are lots of nice days out there, but I plan my trips around writing, life, the kids–you know how it goes! I’ve fished in tall swells with choppy waves, and even caught my biggest fish–a 35 lb salmon–in 17 foot swells before, so it was such a great experience to watch the calm waters, blue skies and occasional cloud in the sky.

This is also looking back toward where Point Hope is set. The coastline is such a great backdrop for a story, with its beauty, unpredictable weather, storms and mysterious side–I’ll probably set many more novels here!

Here I am,  hiding in five layers, after our day out on the water.

There were several harbor seals playing around the boats, but I couldn’t get them to smile for the camera. One got close enough that I could even see the whiskers on his face, but then he dove. There’s a fish cleaning station a ways off to the left in this picture, so the seals and seal gulls were hanging around over there, waiting for scraps. It’s whale watching week in Oregon, but we only caught a few glimpses of a spout here and there. I did see streams of little jelly fish floating by the boat.

We had a great day of fishing with everyone limiting out on ling cod in addition to 3 salmon in the boat. Easter Dinner is going to include some fish this year!